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September 30th 2015

3 years ago

An injured man, rumoured to be a suspect, is driven away in an ambulance with police escorts on September 21, 2013, following a security operation at an upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi where suspected terrorrists engaged Kenyan security forces in a drawn out gun fight. Some 20 people have been killed and about 50 wounded Saturday in the initial attack by the gunmen the Kenya Red Cross said. AFP PHOTO / Tony KARUMBASource:AFP

A LARGE explosion rocked the Kenyan mall where Islamic extremists are holding hostages and killed 68 people. including an Australian.

"Godspeed to our guys in the Westgate building,'' Kenya's National Disaster Operation Centre said in a message on its Twitter site. "Major engagement ongoing.''

The number of people killed in the ongoing siege, which began on Saturday, is feared to rise sharply from the 68 people confirmed dead, police sources said after entering the building.

"We fear the death toll ... it could be much, much higher than what we have, judging from the bodies sighted inside,'' a police officer said, after reports from inside of multiple corpses.

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

"There are more people dead inside, and some of the attackers are still armed and throwing grenades and shooting at the officers,'' the officer added.

The disaster centre reported "sporadic gunfire'', while an AFP reporter outside the mall said a loud explosion had been heard as troops moved inside the sprawling complex.

Journalists at the Westgate mall said the explosion on Sunday afternoon was by far the largest in the 30-hour siege. There big blast was followed by silence.

Details are scant, but the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed that someone of dual Australian/British nationality had been killed.

Kenya shopping centre attackSource:AFP

"Advice received from the Australian High Commission in Nairobi confirms that an Australian-UK dual national was among those killed in the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi,'' a DFAT spokeswoman said.

"The Australian government deeply regrets this senseless loss of life and extends deepest sympathies to the family of the victim. It is not appropriate to name the individual.''

Consular assistance will be extended to the family of the person killed.

Meanwhile, a Melbourne woman and a former Adelaide man have survived the terrifying siege in an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall, as Kenyan troops remain locked in a fierce firefight with Somali militants inside.

Israeli forces have joined Kenyan efforts to end the deadly siege, a security source said.

Nairobi shopping centre attackSource:AFP

"The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured," the source said on condition he not be named.

Former Adelaide man Greg Aldous escaped the killers by hiding in a box, but saw a man gunned down in front of him. Read his story here

"They were coming through the front, they were coming through the back, and we were just sitting ducks," he said.

Sarah Williamson, 23, from Melbourne, was trapped in the mall for six hours, huddled in a phone store as carnage unfolded around her, 3AW reports. Read her story here

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

Ms Williamson was in the mall with her father when she heard the first explosions.

"She heard the first grenade go off and said, 'What was that, dad?'," mum Linda has told the radio station.

"Then he heard the guns firing and he knew exactly what it was and he said, 'We're under attack, everybody to the back of the room.'"

People with concerns about family or friends in Kenya should try to contact them directly or if unsuccessful phone the DFAT consular emergency centre on (02) 6261 3305.

Earlier on Sunday Kenyan army helicopters hovered over the mall. There are fears of a protracted standoff in which the terrorists use the captives as pawns.

Kenyan security officials didn't - or couldn't - say how many people were being held captive by the terrorists.

Heavy gunfire could be heard as Kenyan security officials said they were attempting to kill or capture the remaining attackers and end the 24-hour-long bloodbath at the Westgate mall.

KENYA mall attackSource:AFP

Somalia's al-Qaida-inspired Shebab rebels said the carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex mall was in retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists.

Al-Shabab said on its new Twitter feed - after its previous one was shut down on Saturday - that Kenyan officials were asking the hostage-takers to negotiate and offering incentives.

"We'll not negotiate with the Kenyan govt as long as its forces are invading our country, so reap the bitter fruits of your harvest,'' al-Shabab said in a tweet.

After a day and night of sometimes ferocious gun battles, security sources said police and soldiers had finally "pinned down" the gunmen. The Kenyan Red Cross appealed for blood donations and authorities urged residents to steer clear of the area.

KENYA-ATTACKSSource:AFP

"We are still battling with the attackers and our forces have managed to maroon the attackers on one of the floors," said Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna.

"We still do not know the number of hostages nor the attackers but we hope to bring this to end today," he added.

Journalists at the scene said a final assault appeared to be in motion, and saw two wounded Kenyan soldiers evacuated from the complex and taken away by ambulance. A woman who had spent a cold night hiding under a parked car was also rescued.

Kenya's interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said about 1000 people have been rescued so far from the Westgate mall and there were 10 to 15 attackers involved.

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

He said Kenyan forces had control of the security cameras inside the mall. Combined military and police forces have surrounded the building.

Kenya shopping centre attackSource:AFP

Earlier today, Kenyan President Kenyatta gave a televised address to the nation about the tragedy which had claimed the lives of so many including several members of his own family.

Mr Kenyatta's nephew and his fiancee were among those confirmed killed.

"They shall not get away with their despicable and beastly acts,'' Mr Kenyatta said in an emotional speech to the nation. "We will punish the masterminds swiftly and indeed very painfully.''

He said Kenya had "overcome terrorist attacks before, and we will defeat them again."

"Our security forces are in the process of neutralising the attackers and securing the mall," he said, as security operations went on late into the night.

Somalia's Al Qaida-linked Shebab group said its fighters were behind the attack.

KENYA-mall attacksSource:AFP

"They want to cause fear and despondency in our country, but we will not be cowed," Mr Kenyatta said, adding:"Terrorism is a philosophy of cowards."

"I ask God to give you comfort. My government will provide the support needed in the days to come," he said. The death toll was expected to climb. Authorities still had not secured the mall when President Kenyatta spoke. There are unconfirmed reports on Twitter that several gunmen remain at large.

His televised address came after masked gunmen stormed the packed upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi.

"The Mujahideen entered #Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the #Kenyan Kuffar (infidels) inside their own turf," the group said on Twitter.

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

The Shebab tweet said the group's warnings over Kenya's military presence in Somalia had been ignored. Shebab "on numerous occasions warned the Kenyan government that failure to remove its forces from Somalia would have severe consequences," it said.

"The Kenyan government, however, turned a deaf ear to our repeated warnings and continued to massacre innocent Muslims in Somalia #Westgate," the group tweeted via its @HSM_Press account. "The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders," it said.

Kenyan forces entered Somalia two years ago to fight the Shebab, and remain in the country as part of an African Union force that is supporting Somalia's internationally backed government.

Group's Twitter account suspended

KENYA mall attackSource:AFP

The Twitter account of Somalia's Al Qaida-linked al-Shabab rebels has been suspended after they used the site to claim responsibility for the attack on the Nairobi shopping mall.

A message from Twitter on the English-language HSM_Press account read that the account was suspended, the third time this year that the group has been expelled from the site.

According to Twitter, users are blocked "for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities".

The Shabab's previous account, HSMPress, was suspended in January after the group posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages. They opened another account, HSMPress1, but were again suspended earlier this month after threatening Somalia's internationally-backed president.

KENYA mall attackSource:AFP

The group issued a string of messages on Twitter, claiming its fighters were behind an attack on Nairobi's upmarket Westgate shopping mall.

Gunmen told Muslims to leave

Two French citizens were killed the attack, the Elysee Palace said in a statement. President Francois Hollande "condemns the cowardly attack in the strongest terms and shares the pain of the family of our compatriots," said the statement.

One Kiwi has been injured in the attack with New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says one citizen was injured in the attack and is in a stable condition in hospital. There is no information at this stage to suggest any other New Zealanders have been caught up in the attack.

The White House condemned the attack as "despicable" with Americans reportedly among the injured. Britain's Foreign Office said at least three UK nationals were killed in the attack and warned that the number of UK nationals confirmed as killed is "likely to rise as further information becomes available.''

A 38-year-old Chinese woman was killed in the shopping mall "terror attack,'' the Chinese Embassy in Kenya said in a statement Sunday. Her son was injured in the attack and in a stable condition in hospital, according to the statement posted on the embassy's website.

Nineteen people, including at least four children, died after being admitted to Nairobi's MP Shah hospital, said Manoj Shah, the hospital's chairman. "We have at least two critical patients currently, one with bullets lodged near the spine,'' he said.

The hospital continued to receive patients Sunday, he said.

Ghanain poet Kofi Awoonor died after being injured in the attack, Ghana's presidential office confirmed.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the despicable terrorist attack on innocent civilians today at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya," US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.

"The perpetrators of this heinous act must be brought to justice, and we have offered our full support to the Kenyan Government to do so."

Two Canadians including diplomat Annemarie Desloges are among the victims, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.

"Canada condemns in the strongest possible terms this cowardly, hateful act that apparently targeted innocent civilians who were simply out shopping," Mr Harper said in a statement confirming the death of diplomat Ms Desloges.

Australians are being advised to avoid public places in Kenya for 24 to 48 hours.

The gunmen had told hostages that non-Muslims would be targeted, said Elijah Kamau, who was at the mall at the time of the midday attack.

"The gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave. They were safe, and non-Muslims would be targeted,'' he said.

Jay Patel, who sought cover on an upper floor in the mall when shooting began, said that when he looked out of a window onto the upper parking deck of the mall he saw the gunmen with a group of people. Mr Patel said that as the attackers were talking, some of the people stood up and left and the others were shot.

Terrified shoppers huddled in back hallways and hoped the militant gunmen lobbing grenades and firing assault rifles inside the mall would not find them. When the coast was thought to be clear, crying mothers clutching small children and blood-splattered men sprinted out of the four-storey shopping centre.

Witnesses said at least five gunmen - including at least one woman - first attacked an outdoor cafe at Nairobi's Westgate Mall, a shiny, new shopping centre that hosts Nike, Adidas and Bose stores. The mall's ownership is Israeli, and security experts have long said the structure made an attractive terrorist target.

The attack began shortly after noon with bursts of gunfire and grenades. Shoppers - expatriates and rich Kenyans - fled in any direction that might be safe: into back corners of stores, back service hallways and bank vaults. Over the next several hours, pockets of people poured out of the mall as undercover police moved in. Some of the wounded were being transported in shopping carts.

"We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot,'' said Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, the restaurant with shady outdoor seating.

Frank Mugungu, an off-duty army sergeant major, said he saw four male attackers and one female attacker. "One was Somali. The others were black,'' he said.

Senior police sources described the attackers as a well-organised "terror gang" numbering around 10. The mall, popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates and part Israeli-owned, was packed with around 1000 shoppers when it was besieged at midday.

Kenyan troops could be seen moving around and inside the shopping centre while special forces had joined the operation.

Teen survives after playing dead

Eighteen-year-old Umar Ahmed was enjoying a relaxed trip to the mall when gunmen stormed in and all hell broke lose.

"I was at Westgate Mall rooftop at the parking, and all of sudden I heard screams and gunshots all over the place," Mr Ahmed recounted.

"I got scared. I tried to run down the stairs and saw someone running towards the top, I ran back and hid behind one of the cars," he said from his hospital bed at MP Shah Hospital, where he is nursing burns to his hands and chest.

Mr Ahmed said he found himself on the ground, playing dead. He said he could see one of the gunmen approach and look at him.

"Thankfully he turned back," he said. "After a while, the police came and we were able to be evacuated."

'Senseless act of violence'

An eyewitness said that he heard the gunmen speaking Arabic or Somali and saw the group executing shoppers, in what was the worst attack in Nairobi since an al-Qaida bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 in 1998.

Police at the scene said a suspect wounded in the firefight had been detained and taken to hospital under armed guard.

"We have reports there were up to 10 or so attackers and they appeared to be wearing a similar outfit, and others covered their faces," a police official said. "The pattern of the attack and the way they were speaking to their targets clearly point to a well-planned attack by a terror gang."

Somalia's president - the leader of a country familiar with terrorist attacks - said his country knows "only too well the human costs of violence like this'' as he extended prayers to those in Kenya.

"These heartless acts against defenceless civilians, including innocent children, are beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Kenya in its time of grief for these lives lost and the many injured,'' President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.

'I saw people being executed'

A shop manager who managed to escape said at one point "it seemed that the shooters had taken control of all the mall".

"They spoke something that seemed like Arabic or Somali," said a man who escaped the mall and gave his name only as Jay. "I saw people being executed after being asked to say something."

Shocked people of all races could be seen running away from the Westgate centre clutching children while others crawled along walls to avoid stray bullets.

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

Kenneth Kerich, who was shopping when the attack happened, described scenes of panic.

"I suddenly heard gunshots and saw everyone running around so we lied down. I saw two people who were lying down and bleeding, I think they were hit by bullets," he said.

An eyewitness who survived the assault said he saw the body of a child being wheeled out of the mall.

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

"The gunmen tried to fire at my head but missed. At least 50 people were shot. There are definitely many casualties," mall employee Sudjar Singh said.

Rob Vandijk, who works at the Dutch embassy, said he was eating at a restaurant inside the mall when attackers lobbed hand grenades inside the building.

He said gunfire then burst out and people screamed as they dropped to the ground.

It appears the attack began at the outdoor seating area of Artcaffe at the front of the mall, witnesses said.

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, said: "We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot."

Vehicles riddled with bullet holes were left abandoned in front of the mall as the Red Cross appealed for blood donations and police instructed Nairobi residents to stay away.

The four-storey mall, which has several Israeli-owned businesses, is a hub for Nairobi-based Westerners and one of the foremost symbols of Kenya's affluent classes. It opened in 2007.

The mall is popular with the large expatriate community living in the residential neighbourhoods around it, including with foreign staff from the United Nations, which has its third largest global centre nearby.

Security agencies have regularly included the Westgate shopping centre on lists of sites they feared could be targeted by Al Qaida-linked groups.

Kenya Mall AttackSource:AP

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is following the attack "closely and with alarm", a statement from his office said. The United Nations secretary-general's office said Mr Ban has spoken with Mr Kenyatta and expressed his concern. British Prime Minister David Cameron also called Mr Kenyatta and offered assistance.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Twitter that his country was "in close touch with Kenyan authorities about the attack in Nairobi. Our urgent priority is the welfare of UK nationals."

The gunmen carried AK-47s and wore vests with hand grenades on them, said Manish Turohit, 18, who hid in a parking garage for two hours.

saySource:AP

"They just came in and threw a grenade. We were running and they opened fire. They were shouting and firing,'' he said after marching out of the mall in a line of 15 people who all held their hands in the air.

A local hospital was overwhelmed with the number of wounded being brought in hours after the attack, so they had to divert them to a second facility. Dozens of people were wounded. Officials said Kenyans turned out in droves to donate blood.

Kenyan authorities said they have thwarted other large-scale attacks targeting public spaces. Kenyan police said in September 2012 they disrupted a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition.

Anti-terror Police Unit boss Boniface Mwaniki said vests found were similar to those used in attacks that killed 76 people in Uganda who gathered to watch the soccer World Cup finals on TV in July 2010. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for those bombings, saying the attack was in retaliation for Uganda's participation in the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.